3 million

In Northwest Kansas, supporters of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History have launched a campaign to save it after budget cuts forced Fort Hays State University to announce its closure at the end of this year.

The museum hosts a collection of more than 3 million fossils and other specimens, including world-famous marine fossils from 80 million years ago.

The Topeka Capital-Journal →

40%

Gas prices are up 40% from a year ago across the country, but some states are doing it tougher than others. Among the states with a Senate race this year, with competitive states in bold:

• Up 50% or more: Oklahoma

• Up 45-49%: New Mexico, Nebraska, Iowa, Mississippi, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas

• Up 40-44%: West Virginia, Minnesota, Alabama, Texas, New Hampshire, Delaware, North Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, Tennessee, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, South Carolina, New Jersey, Illinois, Virginia

• Up 39% or less: Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Colorado, Alaska, Oregon

AAA →

72%

Exclusive analysis

Diesel prices are up 72% from a year ago across the country, but some states are doing it tougher than others. Among the states with a Senate race this year, with competitive states in bold:

• Up 80% or more: Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio, Mississippi, Texas, South Dakota

• Up 75%-80%: Illinois, West Virginia, Nebraska, Arkansas, Michigan, Tennessee, Kansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Alabama

• Up 70-74%: Iowa, Wyoming, New Mexico, South Carolina, Montana, Minnesota, Colorado, North Carolina, Idaho

• Up 69% or less: Georgia, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, Alaska, Oregon

AAA →

0.1%

The top 0.1% wealthiest Americans have seen their total wealth more than double since the end of 2019, according to Federal Reserve data. As the Wall Street Journal reports, “the biggest factor in this phenomenon is that wealthy people simply own a lot of stocks.”

The Wall Street Journal →

22%

Trust in the media is up, and the improvement is driven by Republicans. A third of Americans say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in “mass media,” up five points from last year. Nearly all of that improvement comes from Republicans, 22% of whom have trust in the media. That’s up from a record-low 8% last year, and the highest GOP reading since 2015.

Gallup →

100

It’s day 100 of The Numarator! Thank you for reading.

Who’s the one person you know who’d enjoy this newsletter most? Please let them know! I’d love to have them as a reader.

Same rules as always: one political number in your inbox every day, 100% free, never written by AI, and no politics on weekends.

– Rémy.

The First 100

Tap or click any number to read more. 🚨 = Exclusive analysis, 🌴 = Weekend.

• -$2.2m - After accounting for $18.5 million in unpaid debts, the DNC ended June $2.2 million in the red. The RNC had $128.6 million in cash on hand.

• 0.74% 🚨 - There are more Canadians in Maine than any other U.S. state. They comprise 0.74% of the population, or 10,273 out of roughly 1.4 million.

• <1% 🌴 - Less than 1% of the population are short sleepers, who get six or fewer hours of sleep but wake up rested.

• 1 🌴 - Spain conceded only one goal at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the fewest ever given up by a World Cup-winning team over the course of a tournament.

• #1 🌴 - America is still the world’s largest economy, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $32.4T, 55% bigger than China’s.

• 1.3% - The fall in small business profitability year-over-year in April, marking the weakest reading in two years.

• 2 - Of the eight major candidates running to become the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, two have previously flipped a Republican-held seat.

• 2 🚨 - Rep. Haley Stevens twice won a House district that President Trump had carried in 2016.

• 2 🚨 - Two potential Democratic presidential candidates support Medicare for All and say Israel is committing genocide. Another three candidates meet one of these two widely discussed “litmus tests” for progressive voters.

• 2x - Microsoft expects the price of storage and memory to double by fall 2027, after having already increased by 2.5x since last October.

• 2.5 - Patients now spend an average of more than 2.5 hours in hospital emergency departments, with 1 in 5 waiting longer than recommended.

• 2.5% - Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher who appeared on the Alaska Senate primary ballot with no party affiliation, took 2.5% of the vote.

• 3x 🌴 - Global production of berries has tripled since 2000. In the U.S., they are the fastest-growing category in produce.

• 4.5 🌴 - The world’s longest-ever jury deliberation lasted four and a half months.

• 5 🚨 - Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton (D) is the fifth statewide candidate so far this year to refuse to debate her opponent.

• 6.6% 🚨 - The last time Trump rallied for a South Carolina candidate between their primary and runoff election was in 2018. Turnout dropped 6.6%.

• 7.7 - Zohran Mamdani’s margin of victory over Andrew Cuomo in the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary.

• 8 🚨 - Eight former NFL players have served in the U.S. House.

• 9.3% - The nation’s violent crime rate fell 9.3% in 2025, marking the largest year-to-year decline since the FBI began estimating crime trends in 1936.

• 9.9% 🚨 - Turnout in Tuesday’s South Carolina Republican runoff rose 9.9% from the primary, compared to the 6.6% decrease between rounds in 2018.

• 10 - One of the largest voter group shifts over the last four years has been with men, who’ve moved 10 points since 2022.

• 10.9 🚨 - Rep. Russell Fry received 43.8% of the vote in the Pee Dee Region during the South Carolina Republican U.S. Senate primary in August, beating Sen. Darline Graham by 10.9 points.

• 11% - Black voters made up 11% of Michigan’s electorate in 2024, the second-highest share of any swing state after Georgia.

• 12 - It’s been 12 years since a major-party candidate for U.S. Senate withdrew after a primary amid a personal scandal.

• 12 🚨🌴 - Of the 60 Super Bowl champions in NFL history, 12 lost their opening game that season, by up to 31 points.

• 13 🚨 - Since July 2025, the number of operating or planned data centers has at least doubled in 13 states.

• 13th 🌴 - Fiji is the 13th country most affected by extreme weather events.

• 14% - The percentage of Iowa voters who say healthcare is the most important issue to their vote for Senate this year.

• 16 🚨 - Through redistricting, Republicans changed the partisan composition of 16 competitive seats in this year’s midterms.

• 17.2% - In the 2024 Democratic presidential primary, 17.2% of voters in Washtenaw voted “uncommitted,” the highest share of any Michigan county.

• 18 🌴 - Teachers in Louisville, Kentucky told students to tear 18 pages out of their student agendas last week because they were riddled with AI errors.

• 18.5 - Brad Lander (31.8), Claire Valdez (20.3), and Darializa Avila Chevalier’s (3.5) average margin of victory over their primary opponents.

• 20 🌴 - England and France have each scored 20 goals in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the most of any team on the field.

• 22 - Lindsey Graham was 22 when he became an orphan. His father had died of a heart attack; just 15 months earlier, he lost his mother to cancer.

• 22% - In a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, independents gave President Trump an average approval rating of 22% across five major issues.

• 25 - Voters say they prefer Democrats to handle health care over Republicans by a 25-point margin, 47% to 22%.

• 25% 🌴 - Only about a quarter of France’s housing stock has air-conditioning, a much smaller proportion than in the United States and other parts of the world.

• 26% 🚨 - Milwaukee County has Wisconsin’s largest share of Black residents at 25.9%, or about 240,000 people. It’s also the only county Hillary Clinton won against Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.

• 30 - When Abdul El-Sayed ran for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2018, he won none of Michigan’s 83 counties. As of now, he leads in 30 counties.

• 33x - Rep. Tom Tiffany (R) has spent $7.6 million on TV and online ads in his Republican primary.

• 35-40% 🌴 - Having grown fivefold since 2016, China will account for 35-40% of global luxury spending by 2030.

• 37% 🌴 - The percentage of school districts that reported not having a librarian in 2024.

• 38% - The three major voter groups least favorable toward AI are voters under age 30 (38%), voters earning less than $50k (38%), and liberals (37%).

• 39.6% 🚨 - If you average all ten recent polls conducted in the Wisconsin gubernatorial Democratic primary, the average level of support for Francesca Hong was 39.6%. As of this writing, she received 39.4% of the vote.

• 40 - The number of Republicans who are retiring, seeking another office, or have so far lost their primaries in the current Congress.

• 41% - 41% of Maine voters said they were falling behind financially in a new Fox News poll. That’s an 11-point increase from the 2024 presidential election.

• 48% - Just under half of California voters (48%) support Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ assets.

• 49% - The percentage of people in American families who don’t have the resources to cover essential expenses to live securely in their community.

• 50 🌴 - This year, over 50 cities and counties have cut ties with Flock, one of the country’s leading producers of public surveillance cameras.

• 50% 🚨 - During the Michigan Senate primary campaign, nearly 50% of Abdul El-Sayed’s individual fundraising has come from donations of $200 or less.

• 54% 🌴 - Teens living in households that earn less than $75,000 annually are more likely to say they’re online “almost constantly” (54%) than those in higher-earning households (35%).

• 57% - In a new Fox News Poll, 57% of voters say they favor banning Flock Safety cameras in their communities.

• 58 🚨 - It’s been 58 years since Iowa last had an open U.S. Senate seat and an open governor’s race in the same election.

• 60% - The percentage of Democrats who said they sympathized more with Palestinians than with Israel in a May NYT/Siena survey.

• 63% - In a new Fox News Poll, 63% of voters say the U.S. should continue to offer citizenship to babies born in the country, even if they are the child of an illegal immigrant.

• 64% - In April, 64% of Americans said they disagreed that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, while 31% said they agreed.

• 11/17 🚨 - The right is still winning the podcast wars. Eleven of the seventeen political commentary shows on Apple or Spotify’s Top 100 charts lean right.

• 66% - 66% of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters aged 18-29 said they would vote for Democratic socialist Francesca Hong in a July Marquette survey. Support for her declines with age.

• 67.1% 🌴 - South Korea is the world’s best recycler, with residents recycling 67.1% of their metal, plastic, paper, and glass.

• 86 🚨 - If Democrats in Massachusetts nominate Ed Markey for another U.S. Senate term today, he’s likely to serve until age 86. But he still won’t be one of the oldest members of Congress next year, with more than a dozen older lawmakers either serving out their terms or running for reelection.

• 89% - Americans’ perceptions of government corruption in the U.S. are at their highest level in 20 years, with 89% of U.S. adults saying corruption is widespread.

• 90% - Primary voters in America choose roughly 90% of the nation’s congresspeople, since their seats cannot plausibly be won by the other party.

• 99% 🌴 - Los Angeles Rams fans feel the best about their team’s prospects this season, with 99% saying they’re optimistic in a survey from The Athletic.

• 124 🚨 - While Abdul El-Sayed lost every county in his 2018 gubernatorial primary, he came closest in Washtenaw, where he was 124 votes short.

• 150 🌴 - Golden Corral serves an average of 150 different items at its buffet restaurants.

• 214 🌴 - The number of draws over 964 FIFA World Cup games played before this year’s tournament, or roughly one-in-five games.

• 236 - The number of high-profile signatories to a new letter, “We Must Act Now,” which warns that AI may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years.

• 338 🌴 - We are speaking 338 fewer words per day with each passing year, or about 120,000 fewer words annually, according to a new study.

• 400 🌴 - Most healthy adults can consume about 400 mg of caffeine a day. That’s roughly nine cans of Diet Coke, four cups of coffee, or two cans of Celsius.

• 580 - The number of officers Mayor Mamdani had proposed adding to the NYPD’s headcount, despite a campaign pledge to keep staffing flat at 35,000.

• 750 🌴 - Last Thursday, the Vatican excommunicated at least 750 priests belonging to a breakaway conservative faction of the Roman Catholic Church.

• 1,000 - A story in the Boston Globe about a regional lesbian bar’s decision to ease its mask mandate for patrons generated 1,000 subscriptions to the newspaper in a single day.

• $1,000 - The cost per household of the Iran War, according to Moody’s Analytics chief economist.

• 1,776 🌴 - The height of One World Trade Center, making it the tallest building in America.

• 1982 - In 1982, the United States and China exchanged the third of three “joint communiques” that form part of the foundation of modern relations between the two countries.

• 1982 - The last midterm convention was held in 1982, when Democrats staged a three day event in Philadelphia.

• $2,000 🚨 - There are no limits on the amount of money people can donate to state and local candidates in Alaska. Today, a ballot measure will ask voters to approve a limit of $2,000 for contributions to an individual candidate.

• 5,000 - One year after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the organization he co-founded continues to grow. Turning Point USA now counts 5,000 total college and high school chapters.

• $10,000 - In July, the New York City Council passed a bill granting one-time bonuses of up to $10,000 to low-paid school aides, but, at war with his city’s teacher’s union, Mayor Mamdani sued to block it.

• 10,033 🚨 - Republicans have won every major statewide race in Florida since 2012, but two races in 2018 were photo finishes.

• 11,338 🌴 - Over the past three years, ticketing company StubHub has drawn 11,338 Better Business Bureau complaints.

• 100,021 🌴 - With 100,021 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Friday’s first-ever regular season NFL game in Australia drew the seventh-largest crowd in league history, and the largest for any NFL game in 16 years.

• 120,000 - There are over 120,000 members of the Democratic Socialists of America as of July, making it the “largest socialist organization in US history.”

• $140,000 🌴 - Attractive people earn about $140,000 more than regular people over the course of their lifetimes.

• $150,000 🌴 - One wedding planning platform pays influencer brides up to $150,000 to “monetize their big day.”

• $244,000 🌴 - Jeff Bezos owes $244,000 in overdue property taxes on his private jet in California, where owners are subject to an annual 1% tax.

• 394,300 - New York is now home to the largest high-skilled tech workforce in the US, with 394,300 workers, surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area.

• 800,000 - An analysis by The Economist found that AI has created about 1 million jobs in America, outweighing the roughly 200,000 layoffs attributed to the technology since mid-2023.

• 1.18M 🚨 - If turnout in today’s Democratic primary in Michigan exceeds 1.18 million votes, it will set a new record for the largest turnout in any Democratic primary for statewide office in Michigan history.

• $2M 🌴 - Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder and face of KFC, sold his restaurant company to a group of investors for $2 million in 1964.

• $17M - The Senate Leadership Fund has $17 million in TV reservations in New Hampshire this fall.

• $300M 🌴 - Rhode, the Gen Z beauty brand founded by Hailey Bieber, is on track to do $300 million in North American sales this year.

• 332M 🌴 - Since its founding in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has gifted more than 332 million books to children in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, and Australia.

• $524M - Including both campaign spending and spending by outside groups, Kamala Harris outspent Donald Trump by $524 million in 2024 for a total of $2 billion.

• $640M 🌴 - A court ordered Chey Tae-won, chair of AI chipmaker SK Hynix, to pay more than $640 million to his ex-wife in a so-called “divorce of the century.”

• $852M - Michigan is expected to see $852 million in ad spending this election cycle, making it the swing state with the most spending in the nation.

• $2.3B - The amount the Trump family has made from their crypto ventures, and the amount investors have lost from the same ventures.

• 17.4B - In the U.S., data centers consume 17.4 billion gallons of water every year. That is less than 1% of the country’s total water consumption.

150

Golden Corral serves an average of 150 different items at its buffet restaurants, a dining option that’s becoming more popular among cash-strapped consumers.

As food costs rise, the company is experimenting with new drinks, home delivery, and lower-cost items, like its bone-in fried pork chop, which costs about 40% as much as its sirloin steak.

The Wall Street Journal →

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13th

Fiji is the 13th country most affected by extreme weather events. To better prepare for hurricane season, the island nation is one of several now participating in a project to integrate natural indicators in their early-warning systems.

These include the direction that yams grow, the behavior of bees, or in nearby Vanuatu, the nesting patterns of green turtles (nesting farther inland suggests a hurricane is on its way).

Promoting traditional weather knowledge can help communities that are too small or remote for expensive monitoring equipment available on larger islands.

BBC →

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16

Exclusive analysis

Through redistricting, Republicans changed the partisan composition of 16 competitive seats in this year’s midterms.

15 became more Republican:

• AL-02, FL-16, OH-10, OH-15 (Likely R on the Fox News Power Rankings)

• FL-09, FL-13, TX-35 (Lean R)

• FL-14, FL-22, NC-01, OH-09 (Toss-up)

• FL-25, OH-01, TX-28, TX-34 (Lean D)

1 became less Republican:

• TX-23 (Likely R)

These are not the only seats the GOP hopes to gain from the process this November (they are expected to gain several uncompetitive seats in these states and others, like Louisiana and Tennessee).

But the results of these closely-watched races will give an indication of whether the party’s redistricting efforts are panning out.

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1,000

A story in the Boston Globe about a regional lesbian bar’s decision to ease its mask mandate for patrons generated 1,000 subscriptions to the newspaper in a single day. According to the Globe’s managing editor, it was “by far our best performing story of the year.”

Semafor →

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57%

In the latest Fox News Poll, 57% of voters say they favor banning Flock Safety cameras in their communities.

Fox News →

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1982

In 1982, the United States and China exchanged the third of three “joint communiques” that form part of the foundation of modern relations between the two countries.

That statement said the US intended to gradually reduce its arms sales to Taiwan and did not seek long-term weapons sales to the island.

But at the time, President Reagan also said any reduction was “conditioned absolutely upon the continued commitment of China to the peaceful solution” of its differences with Taiwan.

As Reuters reports, China has “sharply” stepped up its military activities in Taiwan over the past five years.

President Xi Jinping is expected to meet with President Trump this week to discuss the issue.

For his part, President Trump is expected to make a decision soon on a new arms sales package. According to the White House, Trump approved more sales to Taiwan in his first term than any previous president, and in the first year of his second term, approved more than President Biden did in his four years.

Reuters →

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$524m

Including both campaign spending and spending by outside groups, Kamala Harris outspent Donald Trump by $524 million in 2024 for a total of $2 billion.

OpenSecrets (Harris, Trump) →

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12

Exclusive analysis

Of the 60 Super Bowl champions in NFL history, 12 lost their opening game that season, by up to 31 points.

A quarter of those teams did it in the last decade, including this year’s Seattle Seahawks.

The full list includes:

• San Francisco 49ers, lost Week 1, 1981 against Detroit 17-24, won Super Bowl XVI (1982)

• New York Giants, lost Week 1, 1986 against Dallas 28-31, won Super Bowl XXI (1987)

• Dallas Cowboys, lost Week 1, 1993 against Washington 16-35, won Super Bowl XXVIII (1994)

• New England Patriots, lost Week 1, 2001 against Cincinnati 17-23, won Super Bowl XXXVI (2002)

  • Tom Brady played quarterback for the first time the following week.

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lost Week 1, 2002 against New Orleans 20-26, won Super Bowl XXXVII (2003)

• New England Patriots, lost Week 1, 2003 against Buffalo 0-31, won Super Bowl XXXVIII (2004)

• New York Giants, lost Week 1, 2007 against Dallas 35-45, won Super Bowl XLII (2008)

• New York Giants, lost Week 1, 2011 against Washington 14-28, won Super Bowl XLVI (2012)

• New England Patriots, lost Week 1, 2014 against Miami 20-33, won Super Bowl XLIX (2015)

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lost Week 1, 2020 against New Orleans 23-34, won Super Bowl LV (2021)

• Kansas City Chiefs, lost Week 1, 2023 against Detroit 20-21, won Super Bowl LVIII (2024)

• Seattle Seahawks, lost Week 1, 2025 against San Francisco 13-17, won Super Bowl LX (2026)

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67.1%

South Korea is the world’s best recycler, with residents recycling 67.1% of their metal, plastic, paper, and glass. Australia ranks fifth at 52.9%, the United Kingdom ranks 27th at 34.2%, Canada ranks 57th at 23.1%, and the United States ranks 105th at 14.8%.

Yale Environmental Performance Index →

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63%

In a new Fox News Poll, 63% of voters say the U.S. should continue to offer citizenship to babies born in the country, even if they are the child of an illegal immigrant. That includes 80% of voters under the age of 30, 42% of conservatives, and 63% of voters without a college degree.

Fox News Poll →

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10 points

In addition to independents, moderates, and Hispanic voters, one of the largest voter group shifts over the last four years has been with men. In a Fox News Poll from September 2022, male voters preferred the Republican candidate in their district by 7 points. Today, the same group prefers the Democrat by 3 points.

Fox News →

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25 points

Voters say they prefer Democrats to handle health care over Republicans by a 25-point margin, 47% to 22%. It’s the largest gap of any major issue in this election.

Marquette Law School Poll →

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9.3%

The nation’s violent crime rate fell 9.3% in 2025, marking the largest year-to-year decline since the FBI began estimating crime trends in 1936.

According to the agency, murder was down 18.1%, robbery down 18.5%, rape down 7.6%, and aggravated assault down 7.2%.

FBI →

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0.74%

Exclusive analysis

There are more Canadians in Maine than any other U.S. state. They comprise 0.74% of the population, or 10,273 out of a population of roughly 1.4 million.

Canadian-born residents are a key foreign voter bloc in two other swing states:

• New Hampshire, where 7,305 Canadians make up 0.52% of the population

• Michigan, where 34,594 Canadians make up 0.34% of the population

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